Ooops, big time

The English language, at least in its written form, seems to be in some jeopardy lately. On the national scene we have an "academic" telling us that the comma may now be superfluous. Here in Ukiah, where our literacy level has always been stupendously high -- I mean it is all good, isn't it? -- we have a headline on the front page of today's newspaper: "Insects feel affect of draught." (Forget the subhead for a moment, "to 'Bee' or not to Be," because there's no doubt old Will Shakespeare would be proud to see that we here in Ukiah-on-Russian are familiar with at least one of his plays.) Focus on those poor insects, the bees, and forget the confusion of "affect" for "effect." Keep your mind on "draught." Were the bees perhaps intoxicated or feeling the "affects" of someone's intoxication? Had they perhaps been imbibing too much draught beer? No, dear readers, not so. They were instead feeling the effects of the drought, which, as the article made clear, was threatening the bees' very Being.

Mark Albrecht

Ukiah

Editor's reponse: You can imagine that editor who, alone in the building, late at night, filling in on a shift not normally hers, putting out Page 1 Monday, felt Tuesday morning. The suggested headline from a normally alert writer went right past her and onto the page. Yes, mistakes happen and it's never fun to find an egregious typo, say nothing of a Page 1 headline. Here at the UDJ it's "there but for the grace of God..." and we forgive and move on.